Good Morning and Welcome to Fabulous Friday….and only 8 more sleeps ‘til Christmas 🎄
Good Morning and Welcome to Fabulous Friday….and only 8 more sleeps ‘til Christmas 🎄
This morning, I chose to spend my early hours with the pups, on one of the upper decks at the back of the inn….it was so beautiful, sitting in a rocking chair (covered by a fleecy blanket 😊), with my coffee and journal…. a light breeze blowing, as the sun started to rise in the sky.
I had popped down to our local Post Office yesterday to mail some bill payments (always my favorite thing to do…. not!) Here in Hatteras, many of us don’t have mailboxes at our homes (especially when your home is an inn😁 ), we have post office boxes, that our wonderful ladies at the post office fill with our mail, and little pieces of yellow cards that let you know you have a parcel to pick up. There were a couple of yellow cards for me (if you know soccer at all, being yellow carded in a game has a whole other meaning….and it’s not a good one!), ….and one was a little parcel from Scotland💗
Once back at the inn, I opened the small package, and contained within, was a beautiful, tiny book:
“The Little Book of Wisdom – Wise words from the Best Bear in All the World”
Winnie-The-Pooh
and when I opened up the book, the handwritten message began like this –
"Dearest Pami –
Remember Pooh Sticks?"
Now, I’m not going to “share” the rest of the message, as that’s between my Mom and me 🥰
But those first words catapulted me way back in time, to walks in “Craigie Woods” (an historic house and parkland in my hometown) with my Mom, when I was really (really!) young. There was a small stream in the park, which had pretty little wooden bridges that crossed the stream.
Not one of the Craigie Park bridges.....just looks similar to what I can remember
One of the early photos of Craigie House in Ayr, Scotland
One our favorite things to do was to play “Pooh Sticks” - where we….my Mom, my younger siblings, Paul and Judy, would all gather tiny “sticks” that had broken and fallen off some of the surrounding trees. You tried to find “unique looking” sticks, as you had to remember what they looked like.
We would then all take one of our sticks, and step up onto a little bridge…and, when we were all lined up , Mom would say “3,2,1....Go!" ...at which point we would all throw our sticks off one side of the bridge into the moving waters below – and then rush to the other side of the bridge to see whose sticks made it through.
We would then wait with bated breath to see if our particular Pooh Stick had made it ….and as a slightly competitive type (yeah, okay…. hyper-competitive), see whose stick would appear first 🥇
Now, if yours made it….it was then off to run down the bank of the stream to see how far your stick would go…
If you were exceptionally lucky (and this was not common!), your Pooh Stick may make it under several more of the little wooden bridges and all the way to the "River Ayr" (which ran alongside the park), then you could watch it as it headed off down the large river – perhaps one day to make it all the way to the ocean….The Atlantic Ocean!
River Ayr Dam
Obviously, we had to stop following the sticks if they made it to the river…. but, if we had been able to follow the sticks' progress, we would have seen the many hazards it encountered along the way –
The fast-moving water over the large cement dam, through the town (of Ayr) under several large bridges that connected the two sides of my hometown divided by the river – one of which was first built in 1470 (yes, my hometown has been in existence for a long, long time). And, if it made it through there…..it may have reached the harbor, where as a child I would love to watch the boats unloading their fishy bounty 😊 and..... if it managed to make it past the boats moored in the harbor, it would go out past the long stone pier and into the “Firth of Clyde”, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean!!!!
Bridges over the River Ayr, and onto the harbor
Ayr Pier
I’m unsure as to whether any of my Pooh Sticks ever made it to the ocean, but in my imagination (yes, I’ve always been a great "dreamer” 💭 ) my stick made it all the way out to the Atlantic Ocean, where it would travel all over the world, and have many, many adventures!
This morning as I sat writing this, I was thinking that I’ve been a bit like my “Pooh Stick”. I started out with my family in my little hometown of Ayr…..negotiated my way through my childhood schooling, teenage heartaches and heartbreaks, many (many) mistakes and errors in judgement, marriages, divorces, birth of my children and their many escapades, my career in healthcare, happy times, sad times, hopeful times, hopeless times……the “push and pull” of my hometown, the obstacles on my way, and the many wonderful helping hands encouraging me and keeping my head above the water when I needed it (even when they didn’t realize they were doing that 🙏)… into the big, wide world, where I made plenty more mistakes…..and had so many adventures.
So, whether it be through luck, good fortune, God’s will, fate, destiny, perseverance, determination, choices, foolhardiness (or maybe foolishness and the relentless drive to do things my way, which in hindsight is most definitely not the best or wisest way!!!!!)…..whatever you believe, shapes our lives – I’m here on the back porch of the Atlantic Inn, a lot older, hopefully wiser…I still have my worries and stresses just like everyone else.
But, my heart and soul are happy here in my Hatteras home (I just have to try a little harder with a few of things to get them righted.......I told you I was a "Work in Progress" 😉 ).
All our lives are a “journey”, and I don’t mean in a cliched way...
We start at one point, and learn how to negotiate the obstacles and bumps along the way – all trying to our best, with the lives we have.
As the quote that I have carried around in my head, heart….and on my walls for many years, says…
My plaque now hangs over the entrance to the guest lounge at the inn
“Life’s a Journey not a Destination, and You just can’t tell just what Tomorrow Brings”
as sung so eloquently by Steven Tyler of Aerosmith.
So, let’s make the best of life….and enjoy the ride!
Before I go, I do have to say a quick "Thank You🙏 " to my Mom, who’s an inspiration to me, and I love her with all my heart 🥰
Until next time,
Take care, Stay safe and…. savor the small moments, they often make the greatest, and most beautiful and insightful memories.
Love and Hugs,
Pam
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Beautiful! Thank you.
jan